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Pest Library

The aim of this page is to provide helpful information on common pests in Southern California. If you have any questions about any pest that it is not covered here, please reach out to us. We can answer any question you have.

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Ants

Ants can nest anywhere, and enter through the smallest cracks. Once one ant finds a food source, more are sure to follow thanks to their ability to track each other by scent. They’re very mobile pests; to control them effectively, the whole property must be treated. An ant colony can build and repopulate a new nest very quickly.

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Centipedes

Centipedes are attracted to lightly damp shelter, meaning, they’ll live under leaves, mulch, rocks, and wood. In small numbers, these insect-eaters make great neighbors. In large numbers, they present a slight health risk, as they can bite and administer a light poison. Both the common outdoor centipede, and the so-called “house centipede” can multiply quickly; be sure to clean up potential hovels for these pests.

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Earwigs

Earwigs infest water supplies and septic tanks. Their presence sometimes prevents problems from being discovered in water safety tests. They also destroy all manner of plants including food crops. When the weather is hot and dry, earwigs will seek shelter in human structures such as your house or business, and will sustain themselves on every kind of vegetable, fruit, or plant matter they can find.

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Bees

Once bees nest on your property, guests will hesitate to visit your business or home. Allergens to bee venom can be fatal. What’s worse, simply spraying to eliminate the pests doesn’t guarantee the honeycomb or hive won’t be repopulated later. Bees protect their queens with total loyalty, meaning that an incomplete job will grant only brief relief of your bee problem.

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Rats

Rats are a serious nuisance. They’ll eat anything they can, and they’ll destroy anything they can’t eat. Rats spread disease, and their capacity for property destruction is frankly amazing. Trapping, baiting and poisoning these pests is only the beginning; regular maintenance and a strategy for preventing access and nesting is the only way to guarantee long term protection against rat problems.

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Crickets

Cricket infestations range from the annoying, to the insanely annoying. They can also contaminate food, but that’s highly uncommon. The cricket’s main crime is that infernal noise, which keeps you awake at night in your home, and commands the complete attention of your customers. Many species of crickets are very difficult to find, and that sound is a complex form of communication which they use in an effort to stay ahead of danger.

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Snowbugs

Although mostly harmless, this scavenging creature can invade your property in large numbers after a rain storm, seeking debris to feed and breed in. They’re attracted to wood and mulch. They eat other bugs, and are generally beneficial to your garden, but if they’ve invaded your home, there are steps we can help you take to show this unwanted pest the exit.

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Flies

Flies are among the pests that range from the annoying, to the dangerous. A few flies bite, but their real crime is the fact that they occasionally breed in food supplies. Without thorough and professional pest control services, restaurants fight a constant battle to make sure their customers get the first bite of every meal being prepared in the kitchen. Naturally, they also breed in garbage, meaning no business can prevent offering some temptation to a budding fly infestation.

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Mice

Mice are quick to breed, fast on their feet, and able to burrow into boxes and squeeze into the tiniest cracks. Mice are famous for eating through anything that stands between them and food, and for being just clever enough to hide the damage while their litters grow and multiply. In worse cases, they can contaminate food storage while going unnoticed.

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Grasshoppers

Although relatively harmless, grasshoppers can damage your lawn, garden, and landscape. They breed in big numbers and can grow to very large size, and they’re not always timid about approaching humans.

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Wasps

Like bees, wasps present a serious problem, especially for businesses. Even if your customers and guests aren’t allergic, they can still be afraid of these pests – many business owners call us reporting that at the first sight of a wasp nest, potential customers get back in their cars and never come back. Wasps tend to create multiple nests, and are experts at hiding their nests within your structures, even inside of walls. All it takes is a single crack in your facade for your building to become a flying stinger factory.

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Ticks

Ticks are a painful and dangerous nuisance, especially for customers with animals, or anyone who lives or operates a business near Mother Nature. There are many varieties of ticks, but they all have one thing in common – they’re dangerous, blood-sucking parasites. Many of them can carry blood-borne diseases. Even without carrying a disease, some tick species are able to shut down a victim’s nervous system or immune system using toxins in their saliva. Ticks are very smart for their size, are well-armored, and present definite health risks. Ticks can detect poisons, and they know how to run and hide when insecticide is being applied. This pest is smart enough to know that “taking cover” in tall grass will often spare its life. These smart instincts make tick control a very methodical job, requiring thorough treatment and a pattern of application that won’t result in a tick stampede headed into your property from elsewhere on the premises.

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Roaches

Ah, the cockroach: Quite possibly the number one disease-carrying, all-consuming, mass-spawning, nocturnal colony critters that nobody ever wants to see on their property. The old saying is true. If you have cockroaches, you have a lot more cockroaches than you’re seeing. Colonies can live under linoleum, inside any part of a structure, inside stored items, and more. This pest can range from the tiny, to sizes relatively gargantuan for urban insects. It goes without saying that this is not an easy pest to eliminate, requiring thorough treatment and attention to detail.

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Mealybugs

The mealybug is more of a problem for your plants, than for you. This pest is still very bad news for nurseries and people with gardens and houseplants, of course! Mealybugs can devastate your plants, and can be very persistent – that is, until we arrive.

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Moths

The moth is a bigger problem than most people assume. Annoying you and your guests, eating your upholstery and your clothes, the moth may not be a health risk, but they’re still pests. The destruction they can cause begins at birth, with severe damage to even leather, fur, and other organic-based cloth, particularly any items stored in upper floors of a building.

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Spiders

There are as many different reasons to deal with a spider infestation, as there are breeds of spiders. From the lethally poisonous spiders, to the simply get out of my house you creepy and crawly monster variety, it’s tough to know which kind of pest your spiders are. There are a few breeds of spider that are beneficial to homeowners, stalking and destroying insects – but we don’t mind removing your eight-legged pests and taking over their jobs. If you’ve hit a point where you know you have more than just the typical number spiders on your property, we’ll take care of it.

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Pillbugs

The heavily-armored pillbug invader will seek out trash and organic debris. The good news about this pest is that they aren’t a health risk and they don’t breed especially rampantly. The bad news about pillbugs is that they’re unsightly, and they can smell awful both when alive and when killed.

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Fleas

Fleas are annoyingly fast to reproduce and can carry blood-born diseases. All it takes to cause a flea problem is one guest or customer with a pair of unwanted stowaways on their clothes. Fleas can nest, feed, and breed either indoors or out, living off of organic debris and preferring to attach themselves to people an animals. This means a severe nuisance, especially for businesses. A flea problem is a guaranteed way to lose business. Meanwhile, for homes, your poor pets will suffer the brunt of the assault. A combination of human- and pet-safe treatments will kill these pests and prevent their eggs from spawning.

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Mosquitoes

Everybody knows about the tiny mosquito menace. You don’t see this pest stalking you because of its size, you don’t feel them bite you because of the sedative in their saliva. But afterwards, you itch like mad, and you’re at risk of blood-born disease. Mosquitoes are one of the bigger health risks among the pest population, more so because they can breed so easily and go undetected until the infestation is severe.

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Silver Fish

The silver fish is so-named because that’s what it looks like; a half-inch long silver fish with legs. They move very quickly, and they eat mainly starch and mold. They prefer warm, damp areas, but can be found foraging anywhere. The silver fish diet allows them to damage wallpaper, books and other paper products, some insulation, and they can get into kitchen stock, and leave yellowish stains, especially on light fabric. A dehumidifier, fans, ventilation, and structural repairs will complement our pest control services in preventing a repeat invasion of this pest.

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Scorpions

The scorpion is a nocturnal hunter. This pest is always adaptable, typically clever, often numerous, and occasionally dangerous. Most scorpion species are no more poisonous than a wasp, but there are breeds whose stingers can kill a human. Mulch, straw piles, wood piles and wood chips, crevices under rocks, synthetic flower beds, and indoor locations used for storage are the favored nesting and sleeping spots for this pest, but any dark and sheltered place will suffice. As a hunter of other insects, scorpions will roost near other kinds of pest infestation. Controlling scorpions is often a multi-step, multi-ingredient process.

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Millipedes

Millipedes are most common during rainy seasons, but can infest your property at any time. They eat decaying organic matter, so everything from trash, to yard refuse, to wet wood or even freshly cut grass is attractive to this pest. Although the millipede is a harmless creature, they can be an unwelcome presence, especially if sighted in numbers, or if ever seen by a customer at your business.